GPS wearable offers peace of mind for parents of special-needs children

Children with autism tend to wander off, and for those
who also lack verbal skills, this can be a dangerous proposition. Now there is
AngelSense, a wearable device that communicates via smartphone offering
up-to-the-minute location information for parents of special-needs children.

The AngelSense device is smaller than a credit card and just
a little thicker than a pencil. It contains a GPS chip, a cellular phone
network connection, a camera and a microphone. It can be attached to any child
at risk of wandering via a belt that can only be removed by a parent or other
designated individual using a magnetic key.

Parents are able to monitor their children's daily
activities and transit routes via the web and a mobile app. The device also knows
the child’s schedule and can alert parents if their child isn’t where they are
supposed to be at a given time.

AngelSense, developed in Israel, has been available in the U.S. since last year from the company's website.

Doron Somer, an Israeli computer scientist, has an autistic son named Itamar. After realizing that there was no existing product that addressed the
issues of the special-needs community, Somer set out to
design his own.

“Itamar, like many children with special needs, is very
fragile, and every small change in routine can get him out of balance. He
doesn't communicate what has changed, so we try to be ‘detectives’ in order to
understand where the problem is,” Somer told From the Grapevine.

To develop and market AngelSense, Somer partnered with fellow Israeli and entrepreneur Nery Ben-Azar, who calls the app a “social
venture” and says the product’s primary goal is to keep children safe and
make life a little easier for both the kids and their parents. To that end,
AngelSense’s support team is staffed by a group of mothers who all have a
special-needs child of their own at home.

“AngelSense is my eyes and ears when I'm not with my son," Somer said. "He brings the device to me to charge when he's back home, and he asks for it in the morning. It makes him feel safer and more secure.”

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